Vodacom’s Smart V8 and Smart N8 smartphones touch down in South Africa

Vodacom has released the Smart V8 and Smart N8 in South Africa; two new 4G-capable Android Nougat devices with budget price tags.

South African mobile networks have increasingly dipped their toes into the smartphone arena, and now Vodacom has announced a new smartphone duo in the form of the Smart V8 and Smart N8.

Arriving on the market with 4G eligibility and Android 7.0 Nougat in tow, the duo mark a new expansion for Vodacom’s smartphone presence – Vodacom’s chief officer for consumer sales, Jorge Mendes, confirmed that the company had shipped over 3,4 million branded devices in the past financial year.

The Vodacom Smart V8 is the more premium affair of the two; powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 435 processor, the device ships with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. The smartphone sports a 16-megapixel primary camera with an 8-megapixel selfie camera, and accommodates a large 3,000mAh battery in addition to a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. The device supports a 1080p display.

The Smart V8 is slated for a R299 x 24-month fee on Vodacom’s uChoose Flexi 150 contract, and will cost R3,599 ZAR on prepaid.

The Vodacom Smart N8 ships with a quad-core Cortex A53 processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, and a 13-megapixel primary camera. The device is rounded out by a 5-megapixel selfie snapper, 2,400mAh battery, and a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner with a 720 display.

The Smart N8 will set consumers back R129 x 24-months on Vodacom’s uChoose Flexi 110, and will further cost R1,999 ZAR on prepaid.

Vodacom expects to round out its new portfolio through the release of two other Smart devices later this year – namely the Smart Tab N8 and the Smart E8.